Tag Archives: R. Kelly

Alright so the reason why I put this video up specifically is because I personally like the song, but what I want to do in this post is just explain the genius that is Fall Out Boy.

This is by far one of THE BEST examples of marketing I have seen for music videos. Starting with their first single “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark”, Fall Out Boy (FOB) has created a storyline. Right now they are up to part 5 in an 11 part story with each song telling more of the story. Now, why this is genius?

It is grabbing our attention to the characters. We want to see what happens to them. And in so doing, we will listen to their music and find out all or most of the songs on their CD. If we like them we’ll buy them or download them. This is important to know because many authors see that series books sell more than just stand alone books. That’s because, like I said before, we are connected to the story line. Not only that, so many music videos nowadays don’t really have a purpose, or a storyline for that matter, they are just the artist singing or rapping the song in a multitude of locations and with multiple outfits. There is never any textual analysis that can go on (besides Lady Gaga videos which I find very fabulous to analyze).

Now, this isn’t the first of it’s kind. One music video series that come to my mind happened a few years ago called “Trapped in the Closet” by R. Kelly. In these videos we see a bunch of families having many problems (infidelity a big one amongst them). The difference being is that R. Kelly is singing the story along to us, which is definitely unique, whereas FOB is having their songs play while a story is being told.

Which way do you like better? Do you agree that FOB did a great job with these videos? Are you following along to their story?